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Andrew Mehrtens 'surprised' by unexpected weakness in Boks' display
By Josh Raisey
Though South Africa came away with a narrow 31-27 win over the All Blacks at Emirates Airline Park on Saturday, former New Zealand No10 Andrew Merhtens feels Scott Robertson’s side will be “taking a lot of positives” from their performance.
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Both sides will head into a rematch in Cape Town on Saturday with plenty of belief from what they produced in Johannesburg.
The world champions may have got the victory, but it was far from a convincing performance, particularly in the first half. It was actually a display that “surprised” Mehrtens, particularly with regard to the Springboks’ defence.
The All Blacks great was a guest on RugbyPass TV’s Boks Office this week, where he said the Springbok defence was “not as cohesive or robust as I expected”.
The Boks’ ferocious defence has been the foundation of their consecutive World Cup triumphs, but it was uncharacteristically porous against their arch-rivals in round three of the Rugby Championship. Caleb Clarke’s opening try was an example of how the All Blacks across the board were able to make ground easily, albeit from turnover ball.
But it was not just in the tight quarters that the Boks’ defence underachieved in Mehrtens’ eyes, but also their inability to stop the visitors spreading the ball wide.
“I was a bit surprised that the defence was not as cohesive or robust as I expected,” the 70-cap All Black said.
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“And that might just be the changes in players, the changes in roles or whatever. But the All Blacks were better at trying to punch holes against that defence than they were against Argentina, for example.
“They used stepping, Codie Taylor was a good example, rather than just thumping into the body, a bit of a step, get on a weak side and get a little bit past the contact zone. But I did feel South Africa wasn’t as tight in that defence as I expected and the All Blacks got a bit more go-forward a bit more easily than they might have anticipated.
“None of us expected the All Blacks to get around the outside of the Boks like they did. The best and most stable midfield in the world – [Damian] de Allende and [Jesse] Kriel – then you’ve got those fantastic wingers with all the pace and it’s been hard to get around the outside of the Boks. So the All Blacks did that really well. So they’ll be taking a lot of positives.”